Iliad and Odyssey boxed set | 
 enlarge | Author: Homer
Creators: Bernard Knox, Robert Fagles
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $31.95
Buy New: $17.89
You Save: $14.06 (44%)
New (30) from $17.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 10898
Format: Box Set
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 2
Pages: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.2
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6 x 3.5
ISBN: 0147712556
Dewey Decimal Number: 809
EAN: 9780147712554
ASIN: 0147712556
Publication Date: November 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Item is from our store location and may have minor shelfwear or minor creases.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
This is a boxed gift edition of Fagles's two widely acclaimed translations of Homer. The Iliad is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to call it a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the 10th and final year of the Greek siege of Troy. The Odyssey is, quite simply, the story of Odysseus, who wants to go home. But Poseidon, god of oceans, doesn't want him to make it back across the wine-dark sea to his wife, Penelope, son, Telemachus, and their high-roofed home at Ithaca. The story is told in easy-going, beautiful poetry; the characters speak naturally, the action happens briskly. Even the gods come across as real people, despite the divine powers they exercise constantly. Both works have been hailed by scholars and the public for the powerful language that brings clashing, pulsing life to these ancient masterpieces.
Product Description
A beautiful gift set of Robert Fagles' award-winning translations of Homer
Gripping listeners and readers for more than 2,700 years, The Iliad is the story of the Trojan War and the rage of Achilles. Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic.
If The Iliad is the world's greatest war story, then The Odyssey is literature's greatest evocation of every man's journey through life. Here again, Fagles has performed the translator's task magnificently, giving us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.
Each volume contains a superb introduction with textual and critical commentary by renowned classicist Bernard Knox.
* Deluxe paperback editions with French flaps and acid-free paper in a handsome slipcase
* Robert Fagles is the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
* The Iliad was a New York Times Notable Book and won the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets, an award from the Translation Center of Columbia University, and the New Jersey Humanities Book Award
* The Odyssey was chosen by Time as one of the ten Best Books of 1996
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Highly readable translation October 3, 2008
Highly readable translation that conveys the poetic beauty of the Illiad and the Odyssey. The typography and physical construction of these volumes is also excellent.
 DON'T buy into the Fagles "hype"! September 10, 2008
Although I respect Fagles as a modern translator, I cannot recommend his translations of Homer...I would probably only recommend his translations of Sophocles's 3 Theban Plays.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey don't sound like Epics anymore under Fagles...they are turned into mild nice sounding children stories! He tones down Homer to the point that I feel that Fagels wants his personality to shine NOT Homer's! I am gravely disappointed by this.
I also find that he not only forces beauty into the text but adds too much of his personal warmth that gets in the way of the texts and creates a vision of Homer's epics that is truly unsound to the original.
Not only that but the font and design of the print is an eye sore, I don't like the choice the publishers and Fagles gave to the works. It doesn't make for easy reading...
Stanley Lombardo's translations are unparalleled in their print layout, design and font...not to say vivid and powerful evocative translation.
I continue to find Richmond Lattimore's facinating translations the most accurate to how the Ancient Greek language sounds to English ears. I would buy Lattimore over Fagles (and Fitzgerald).
And I still think Rieu's famous Prose version from 1946 is hard to beat for it's modernity and readibility.
...Find out for yourself by comparing a few versions but don't be duped into this mysterious "Fagles hype"!
Wonderful June 23, 2008
This boxed set was almost a steal it was such a price and quality! The works flowed with what can only be assumed near the original prose and was explained in great detail. Please do buy this item!
Only the dead... March 21, 2008
"The Iliad":
It is obvious that, as Santayana wrote in 1924, "Only the dead have seen the end of war" and, as elegantly shown in Fagles' translation of, "The Iliad", the tradition of military brutality coupled with the equally obvious fact that, "Iron has powers to draw a man to ruin" (Odyssey) are elements of the human condition; they exert a compelling attraction in their various forms and facets to humans of all stripes, but especially, perhaps, to poets, historians and novelists.
"The Iliad", as is known to any high school student, recounts the siege of Troy by the Achaens and the "rage of Achilles" directed both toward his putative ally and commander (Agamemnon) and to his enemy, Troy. The machinations of the gods underpin the tale, with the Judgement of Paris (arousing the ire of Hera, Queen of the Gods) as the motive force. There is gore galore in the epic poem and plenty of raw emotion, tellingly conveyed in the new English text. The extensive introductory remarks by Bernard Knox place the work in historical and literary context.
While this translation has been extolled by a pantheon of reviewers as the "climax" of the art, I still favor the E.V. Rieu (founder of Penguin Classics) prose version of 1946 of both this epic and "The Odyssey". Rieu's effort (acknowledged by the translator, but not considered on par with others) carries the reader in a more "Victorian" and perhaps fastidious fashion to the harrowing conclusion (Achilles triumph over Hector, killer of Patroclus). I am not able to compare the various versions with respect to the original; I only express my opinion as a lay reader.
"The Odyssey":
The "sequel" to "The Iliad", this recounts the eponymous saga of Odysseus (Ulysses) in his attempts to return home from the siege of Troy. It is truly an epic and is, like "The Iliad", one of the cornerstones of Western literature. Really, one cannot claim to be "educated" in Western civilization without a working knowledge of these two books. The claimant to the throne of "best book of the 20th Century" , James Joyce's, "Ulysses" simply cannot be fully appreciated nor understood without a knowledge of this work. As I wrote for, "The Iliad", the new Fagles translation is outstanding, but I again favor Rieu's version; a minority opinion.
In conclusion, these are magnificent works which deserve the recent attention the Fagles/Knox collaboration has engendered. "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" should be read and appreciated in any translation, but these are probably the best. Both also prove that, "...fate takes hold and lays them out at last" (Athena to Telemachus, "Odyssey"). So also does hubris and the lure of revenge, because, like fate, the lust for revenge cannot be tricked.
Incidentally, the boxed set/deluxe edition is well worth owning, compared to the "trade" paperback edition.
The ground is dark with blood January 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Iliad
With many books, translations are negligible, with two obvious exceptions, one is the Bible, and surprisingly the other is The Iliad.
For example:
"Rage--Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
Murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many souls,
great fighters' souls. But made their bodies carrion,
feasts for dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles."
-Translated by Robert Fagles
"Sing, O Goddess, the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a heroes did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles first fell out with one another."
-Translated by Samuel Butler
Our story takes place in the ninth year of the ongoing war. We get some introduction to the first nine years but they are just a background to this tale of pride, sorrow and revenge. The story will also end abruptly before the end of the war.
We have the wide conflict between the Trojans and Achaeans over a matter of pride; the gods get to take sides and many times direct spears and shields.
Although the more focused conflict is the power struggle between two different types of power. That of Achilles, son of Peleus and the greatest individual warier and that of Agamemnon, lord of men, who's power comes form position.
We are treated to a blow by blow inside story as to what each is thinking and an unvarnished description of the perils of war.
=======================================================
The Odyssey
"I long to be homeward bound" Simon and Garfunkle
The Trojan War is over and one of our hero kings is lost. His son (Telemachus) travels to find any information about his father's fait. His wife (Penelope) must cunningly hold off suitors that are eating them out of house and home.
If he ever makes it home Odysseus will have to detect those servants loyal from those who are not. One absent king against rows of suitors; how will he give them their just deserts? We look to Bright Eyed Pallas Athena to help prophecy come true.
Interestingly all the tales of monsters and gods on the sea voyage was told by Odysseus. Notice that no on else survives to tell the tale. So we have to rely on Odysseus' word.
Many movies took sections of The Odyssey, and expanded them to make interesting stories those selves.
Not just the story but the way in which it is told will keep you up late at night reading.
Troy (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
The Archaeology of Heinrich Schliemann: An Annotated Bibliographic Handlist
|
|
|
